Precisely incorrect? Monetising the value of ecosystem services

The paper lists some of the core assumptions, presents a systematic overview of the most relevant valuation methods, illustrates them by providing examples and discusses their limitations. As an alternative, political target setting is suggested, based on a multi-stakeholder, multi-criteria analysis. Market prices play a role in this analysis, as one factor amongst others. For the implementation, cost-effectiveness analysis gives important hints, and economic instruments - inter alia - can play an important role as enforcement mechanisms. However, incentives should be based on criteria of (potential) effectiveness, not on value calculations.